Date: 03/09
City: Rapid City, Montana
Miles ridden: 156
Cumulative miles: 12210

Today we wanted to make it to Rapid City to get our bikes serviced. We had a short stop on a very inviting place, Stoneville Saloon, but we didn’t have time to stay there….

Our next stop was Deadwood, the city were Wild Bill Hickok was killed. We walked through the old township, most of the shops have been restored or new shops built in the same style.

Val tried her luck at winning a Harley, she didn’t win it (maybe it was her lucky day 😉 ).

After a bit of shopping and not winning anything on the slot machines, we continued to Sturgis, a township that is famous for their yearly Motorcycle Rally. This event almost attracts more motorcycle enthusiasts than people living in the whole state of South Dakota.  After we arrived in our hotel, we realised that they had happy hour from 18:00 to 19:30 :D.
After the happy hour we went for a swim in the pool and the hot tub.

Date: 04/09
City: Rapid City, South Dakota
Miles ridden: 10
Cumulative miles: 12220

Not much happened today, we brought our bikes in for a service to a workshop where I had booked them in a week ago. I also ordered the highway pegs, they had arrived and the shop fitted them as well. We heard about these pegs for the first time during the horizon unlimited meeting, two guys with DR650 were raving about them, so I thought we should give them a try.

Date: 05/09
City: Rapid City, South Dakota
Miles ridden: 134
Cumulative miles: 12354

Today we planned to have a look at Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse and ride the Needle Highway with a visit to Custers State Park to have a look at Bison herds, so a full day. As such, we didn’t leave too late and arrived at Mt. Rushmore early. It looks impressive.

We had a short walk closer to the heads and took heaps of pictures, don’t worry, we show only two of them J

At the end of the walk we had a look at the sculpture exhibition where the original idea was shown, but the stone formation didn’t allow creating the lower part of the sculptures. In the exhibition were also some pictures and explanations about the hall of records.

After leaving Mt. Rushmore we rode to the Crazy Horse sculpture. At the beginning it didn’t look as impressive as Mt. Rushmore, but by reading through the exhibits it was clear that this was much more than the eye could see. A smaller model showed what it will look like when finished is on the right hand side.

First, Crazy Horse monument is worked on by only one family which refuses to get tax payers funds for their project. And second, the sheer size of it, the four presidents of Mt. Rushmore would fit into Crazy Horse’s head. What I didn’t realize until then was that the black hills where both monuments reside are a sacred site of the Native Americans. This raises the question, why did the white Americans sculpture their four most important presidents into a sacred Native American site? Anyway, it took us much longer than we thought to look at all the exhibits, pictures and explanation about the Native Americans. But at the end we had to leave to ride the Needle Highway, which is a famous road for motorcycle riders with a couple of nice tunnels carved through the rocks. Below you can see the tunnel and a car just getting through it, there was only one lane in the tunnel and you better honk the horn before approaching the tunnel.

The highway ends into Custer’s State Park, which should have the largest amount of free roaming Bison herds.

We saw a huge herd of Bison’s, but I took only a video shot of it and so far I can’t add video to the blog. Anyway, the way back was as enjoyable on a motorcycle as the way to the State Park, nice curves etc. At some stage the road was even like a corkscrew, which was really fun. What a day, let’s see what we do tomorrow, we will discuss that at beer o’clock.

Date: 01/09
City: Billings, Montana
Miles ridden: 222
Cumulative miles: 11840
We had a relaxed start, only a bit more than 200 miles and not much to see. The landscape was still flat but the wind was strong. Our first stop was at Eddies Corner, a petrol station with a restaurant. The car park was packed, which is mostly a sign for good food, and so it was. I was happy to have a great omelette and Sigrid had beacon and eggs. After we finished our breakfast/lunch, we mounted our trusty steeds and continued our trip.

After a while we saw a sign that suggested that motorcycle rider should think about a detour as there are roadworks coming for 9 miles. We had seen that type of sign before, but the roadwork back then had actually just been finished and we had a great ride on the brand new road. This time the road had a few rough surfaces with the occasional bit of gravel, but the real problem was the gusty winds. We all got out of the road works without a problem, but not long after that we hit the next roadwork. This time there was more of the loose gravel, but less wind (you see, we always complain). We continued and stopped just before Billings to take a picture of the city from the hill.

Eventually we arrived at Hotel 8 where we would stay the night.  The rooms where spacey and we even had a nice kitchen, it was one of the nicest rooms that we had so far. We unpacked for the night and will continue to Little Bighorn tomorrow.

Date: 02/09
City: Broadus, Montana
Miles ridden:
Cumulative miles: 11840

Today it is exactly five month since we started the trip. Time is flying! In the morning I fitted my camera to the front of the tank to see if I can get another view for the videos. Not that I have done much with the videos so far, I just collected them and stored them on an external hard drive. It will be another job to make a video out of that. I guess I can do that when I’m unemployed back home :D.

Anyway, we started the day really relaxed. During our ride, Sigrid and I saw something black flying and jumping onto the side strip. We were not sure if it was something from Wombats bike or something laying on the road. Sigrid had a short look at the mileage counter and we continued our trip. We were close to the Little Bighorn, so we would ask Wombat and Val when we arrived.

When we arrived at the Custer battle ground, Val realized that she lost the GPS. So we watched the movie about the battle and then Wombat and I went back for fourteen miles to hunt the GPS. And we really found it! It looked a bit roughed up but was still working -fat chance that our Zumo 660 would work after that sort of accident…
When we came back from our GPS rescue mission we listen to a ranger who described the battle of Little Big Horn. It was quite interesting to get more background on how the conflict formed and the results of it. We had a look at the memorials -there are two, one for the Indians and one for the US army.

At the Indian memorial each tribe involved had a stone plate with some notes about the conflict. I liked Sittings Bull comment.

On the battle field, there were markers for each fallen soldier/Indian, including the name if they could be identified. On the right hand side is a picture of hill where Custer took his last stand.

After that we had a short ride to the Reno’s battle ground, his group had great casualties but survived. We were now moving towards Broadus, which is a small township on our way to Rapid City. On the way we had a short break on a shop in an Indian reservation. On the side of the shop was a big wooden tepee, but when we came closer we saw that it was an abandon shop. We arrived in Broadus and had lunch at a pizzeria which was also the local cinema. Tomorrow we will make our way to Rapid City where we’ll stay for a couple of days to get our bikes serviced, have a look at Mt. Rushmore, the Needle Highway and Devils Tower.

Date: 15/08
City: McMinnville, Oregon
Miles ridden: 0
Cumulative miles: 10320

We had a lazy day were we caught up with our blog and did some housekeeping. Since it was sunny outside, we wanted to have a swim. The hotel manager gave us the direction to the local pool, so we were on our way in the afternoon. It wasn’t too far so we walked. When we arrived at the pool, we realized that it was an indoor pool, but we went in anyway. Talking to the girls at the entrance, it turned out that a water aerobics lesson would start in 15 minutes, and the first lesson is free. The best thing was that we didn’t have to pay any entrance fee at all, so there was no excuse not to do it. I liked it. The water aerobics was fun and was good for us. We had a short swim afterwards too. Sigrid had a sore back initially, but  it was gone after the water aerobics. 🙂

On the way back we got some money out of a drive through ATM. It felt strange to pick the money up by foot.

When we came back to the motel, the camera lid which we were waiting for still hadn’t arrived. It should have been sent from Modesto ..

Date: 16/08
City: Umatilla, Oregon
Miles ridden: 233
Cumulative miles: 10553

This morning we waited for the postman again. But the parcel with our camera lid had still not arrived , so we left and drove to Multnomah Falls.

We had a short break at the falls, walked up to the bridge, took some picture and then continued to the bridge crossing the Columbia River. When we came to the bridge, we had to pay a toll (1.5$ for the two of us). The bridge surface was made of gridiron, and the bikes were wobbling all along… It was quite scary but everything went well!
The road on the other side was in good condition and not too much traffic, and the view was stunning. At some point we saw a train on the other side of the river; it looked like a model train.

At one stage there was a road sign that motorcycle rider should be particularly careful, but without any explanation why or what to look out for.

The last part of our run was a bit long, since there were no townships along the way there was no need to stop (my view, Sigrid had a slightly different point of view). We arrived in Umatilla after a long day, found a motel and negotiated a price with the host. He was asking for 59 + tax, I said I think we saw it on the internet for 55, so he gave it to us for 56 + tax, which was 61. At night, I realized that the tax in Oregon is only 1%, not 12 as he calculated. Anyway, the room was big and we were tired. Not sure how far we go tomorrow, but we have plenty of time to get to Canada. Maybe we camp tomorrow for 2 days. We will see 🙂

Date: 11/08
City: Eureka, California
Miles ridden: 208
Cumulative miles: 9932

Started early today – we were on our way by 8:45AM. At the beginning of the CA 36 we found a sign: “Windy road for 146 miles”. Then it started to get hot. First the landscape looked a bit like Australia in summer, brown mountain hills, just a couple of minutes later, we rode through a pine forest reminding me of Austria, only much hotter. After 80 miles, we stopped a road house/bar, had some coffee and an ice cream, filled up the bikes and then once more left the air-conditioned road house. Reluctantly. 🙂

The road was winding nicely, and after while we entered an area with big red trees. It was amazing to ride through them, it felt was nice and cool as long we were riding under the big reds. As soon we came out of the red trees, though, it was hot again. When we got close to highway 101 it got noticeable colder. Eventually we arrived in Eureka, settled in our room, had a swim in the heated indoor pool, and took a picture in front of our bikes:

Inside our room we actually switched on the heater – the first time in more than 2 months! Next we got ready for a bit of sightseeing. When we walked towards the beach we stumbled across a snake, sunbathing on the footpath. It was a little annoyed with us for disturbing its peaceful afternoon. Not sure what type of snake it was, but we kept our distance just in case.

After that we passed the beautiful Carson mansion, which was built 1886 as a home of a lumber baron.

While looking for a nice restaurant we found some nice wall paintings on the way.

After a nice meal at a Thai restaurant we walked back to the motel and came across a nice church.

After that we got home and packed the bikes so we can start early again tomorrow.

Date: 12/08
City: Bandon, Oregon
Miles ridden: 191
Cumulative miles: 10123

We managed to start early so we had plenty of time to get to Bandon, 190 miles from here. This time it is mostly highway along the 101. It was foggy, so we put our heated inner jackets on, and took a short detour around the Arcata bay. It was too foggy to see anything from the coast,

but we saw a group of vaulters and a red tail hawk on the side of the road. We continued on highway 101 and at times the highway was covered completely in fog.

Sigrid bike pants got wet from the fog, so we stopped at a rest stop for her to get rain trousers out. This stop was nested in huge red wood trees, amazing.

When a big red tree is cut burned down, young trees grow from the established root system around the cut tree.

We continued in the fog and after a while the road turned inland. All of the sudden the fog was gone and the sun was out. The temperature started to rise and we were thinking of getting rid of our heated liner. Then we turned to the cost again, and the sun was gone and the fog back bringing the colder temperatures with it once more. This time I switched the heated vest on. Have a look at the ocean view from the highway 101 (on the left hand side of the car is the ocean).

After a while the fog started to lift and we could see the ocean from the road. The fog had its own beauty but I prefer sunshine.

We arrived in Bandon, moved into the motel and had a look at the old township. We found a couple of nice sculptures, a beach chair and a nice fish shop.

Date: 13/08
City: McMinnville, Oregon
Miles ridden: 197
Cumulative miles: 10320

Started early again, after filling up the bikes we started to ride on the cold foggy road again. We found the same pattern as yesterday. The fog got thicker when we were close to the coast and the sun comes through as soon we went away from the cost. We had a couple of stops at some vista points, when the fog was gone, the view was great.

We had a stop in Waldport, a small coastal town to get a coffee. After asking in a couple of restaurants/shops we got coffee and a nice burger in a pub (Flounder Inn). When we were drinking our coffee we saw a toy shop opposite, that looked interesting. So we went and had a look. It turned out to be a wood carving shop that had great figurines, wooden toys and a bear chair. We couldn’t resist sitting in it.

After we took some pictures, we continued our trip and as soon we turned inland, the temperature started to rise again. We didn’t stop, but with our heated liner under the motorcycle jacket it became very warm. When we arrived at the American Best Value Inn in McMinnville, Ivo the manager started to talk to us about the bikes and where we are from. It turned out he had some friends in Sydney and visited them a couple of times and he collects old English motorcycles. We talked about his bikes, about Royal Enfield’s and about our Indian trip. In the evening we did a bit of bike maintenance. Tomorrow we have a look at the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum and maybe have a swim in the pool there. 😀

Date: 14/08
City: McMinnville, Oregon
Miles ridden: 7
Cumulative miles: 10327

The next morning we went to the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum that was just 3 miles from our hotel. Wombat and Val were talking about it and they were particular amazed by the Boing 474 on the top of a pool slide. When we came close to the destination I could see what they were talking about.

The whole setup was just nice.

The biggest – and most physical – attraction was the Spruce Goose, a water plane that has a larger wing span then the airbus A380. There was only one prototype built and it flew only once in 1947. It is hard to get a whole plane on one picture.

The museum had different section of planes, from the early pioneers to the modern fighter jets.

After that we went on to the Space Museum, which was just opposite of the Aviation building. This time we took a guided tour and they guided us through the exhibits of the early rocket design up to the space race. We also saw the original rocket launch command centre which didn’t look as big as I imagined. The countdown to launch a rocket took 26 hours.

They had shortened that to 5 min and I was standing in the way of the tour guide, so he got me to start the sequence.

That was quite amazing. They even got the effect right that the building shook after the launch. Before we realised it, the day was gone and the Museum closed, so there was no time for a slide from the 747…

Date: 08/08
City: Chico, California
Miles ridden: 220
Cumulative miles: 9724

Today started a bit earlier – around 9:45am – as we had a long day planned. 180 miles, no GPS….

We followed the California 49 for a while; the road was in good condition. After a T- junction, the road started to deteriorate slowly, so we thought we stop, particular after the expected lake appeared on the wrong side of the road. Ok, this was a minor detour to our route, just to see how beautiful the landscape was in the opposite direction…. Well, that added ~ 40miles to our trip but we found a very nice coffee shop/pub at the Sly park resort.

After we had a coffee and cooled down in the shade for a moment, we got back onto the bikes and followed the direction the shop keeper gave us, eventually making it back onto our track. The road was nice again and the landscape consistently changing. At one place, the landscape looked like India, with a winding road on the side of the steep green hill and a river at the bottom of the valley. After turning a corner in this remote area, there was suddenly a big town. By this time it was really warm, it must have been around 100F again. We kept going and turned right somewhere to make another adjustment to our route. After 10 miles…Whoops, that looked wrong again….. We stopped at a petrol station/super market in the middle of nowhere, got the map out while hiding in a shady place. The owner came out to see us; he saw the Australian flag and wanted to talk to us. We talked a bit and he gave us some pointers how to get to the highway that lead to Chico. So we had been on the right road – sort of… Finally we got onto Highway 99 and we arrived in Chico around 16:00. Sigrid hopped into the pool, I hooked up all our electronics and got the info for Garmin. Sigrid called Garmin- again – 3^rd time lucky…- and after some discussion they send a new unit out. It was too late for an overnight delivery, so we would get it on Friday. We booked the room for 2 more days and then we went to the Sierra Nevada Brewery (via Taxi) for a meal and some beer sampling.

The meals and the sampling were great. They had 19 beers to taste from and you can order 4 samples at a time.

The whole atmosphere was really enjoyable and I liked the setup

We went home around 21:00 via taxi. What a day!

The next day we did some housekeeping. I ordered matching locks for my new panniers, so the same key would fit all panniers. We organized the shipping of our box with Sigrid’s helmet and some other bits and pieces to Australia, organized some spare bulbs and Sigrid’s tank breathing valve. All of the sudden it was afternoon and very hot again, so we made our way to the Bidwell park, which is a long recreational park along a river. We parked the bikes and tried our packsafe net for the first time.

It took a while before we managed to get everything into the net. We will need that frequently in Central/South America to prevent getting our camping gear pinched from the pillion seat. Now it was time to have a look at the river. The setup was nice and surprisingly big. There were multiple green shady areas with tables and benches along the river.

A second, even bigger part of the park was a bit further north. So we had a dip in the river, dried a bit and went then to buy some groceries. On the way we stumbled over a Mexican food truck in a parking lot, which was reasonably priced. So we gave it a shot and it was quite yummy. Arriving at the hotel, we went straight to the pool, which is really refreshing at these temperatures.

The next day we were really just waiting for the locks and the replacement GPS should arrive. We planned to go to the Lessen National Park, which is a lake in a volcano. During the morning we realised that the air was a bit smoky, so I had a look at the park web site and found out that most of the park was closed due to a fire. So we gave that a miss – we can watch bushfires at home…
The locks and the GPS arrived, so we did some maintenance on the bikes instead. In the afternoon we sent the broken unit back and did some of sightseeing in the city.

When we got home we started to pack the bikes so we would have an early start tomorrow, time to get back on the road! 😀

Date: 03/08
City: Modesto, California
Miles ridden: 10
Cumulative miles: 9444

We went shopping yesterday and bought some flowers for Tracy, my doctor – without her we would have needed to return home way too early. And maybe we’ll need a bribe…. So we managed to store the flowers in the top box on the bike and we were hoping they would be in similar shape when we arrive at the doctor’s as when we left.  To our surprise, it turns out they were! To keep it short: The doc gave me the all clear and I was over the moon! When we left we took a last picture of the building and the entrance, I couldn’t wait to get back onto the bike.

So we rode straight to the work shop to pick up my bike but…. Unfortunately the new clutch leaver hadn’t arrived yet. Bummer! While we were there I realized that I forgot to mention to Chris  (the mechanic) that all our panniers had the same key. The new ones he ordered had a different key. Sigrid had the great idea that we could swap the cylinders around. So we did – all of them. One of them does not lock properly, but we will get that fixed later. Chris offered to try to sell the boxes plus luggage rack for us on eBay, which is great as we had no idea what to do with the boxes – sending them home would probably be too expensive. After taking some pictures and sharing some stories we went back to the hotel to organize a small farewell party for Saturday.

Back in or room I started to plan our way up to Canada, finally after two month we are going to be back on the road! Well on Monday, anyway. At night, we sat outside our hotel room and watched the sunset. 🙂

The next morning I picked up my bike – it was like Christmas again! Chris had replaced the clutch lever and the bike was ready to go.

We went to the next shopping centre to buy some beverages and some nibbles for the farewell party. While packing everything into the panniers I realized that the size of the side pannier must have originally been determined by an 18 can Budweiser pack. It’s a snug fit! Great thinking Hepco and Becker 😉.

Our plan was to meet at Doc’s BBQ to have dinner and later on to have some nibbles and beer in the breakfast area of our motel. Back in the motel we got a telephone call from Jane and she offered to have our farewell party at her house – the hobbit house – which we happily accepted. Before dinner we went to another pub to meet with Keith – Pats husband. He and Pat wouldn’t be able to see us that night; Pat (the ambulance driver who got us in contact with Tony) had to work.

Ok, so we went to the pub, had a couple of beers, talked about bikes, the US, Germany, Australia and at the end of the night Keith handed me a tyre pressure gauge – with a stern reminder to check it every morning…
For Sigrid he had an Indian flute that he had made. He manufactures those, they are works of Art. Sigrid really loved the flute. Leaving from O’Brian’s Tavern it was just the right time to go and have some spare ribs. So we went to Doc’s BBQ where Tony was playing. We had dinner and Tony was playing blues on the harmonica.

Sigrid thought she might have found another source of income, hmmm, maybe not J

After the meal we went to Jane and Dirks house -the hobbit house. I like the atmosphere of the house. There is plenty of art around and they have a happy room, which is just a room with very bright colours. Well there is the washing machine and a dryer in the room as well, but I don’t think that is the reason that it is called the happy room. We were greeted by Jane and Nancy, Jane’s sister. When we all had a drink in hand Nancy presented us with a little notebook we could take on our trip. They had put their well wishes in it for us and suggested that people along the way could do the same. Jane gave us a door mantra, a small metal plaque with Buddhist inscription; this is meant to live on a doorframe providing good luck for everyone who enters. A bit later, Charles and Rita arrived. They added some quotes to our notebook. The weather was great and we sat outside enjoying the whole evening/night.

The next day I noticed that my new mirrors on the bike were moving around a bit. I tried to tighten them but none of my sockets would fit onto the nut, since the nut was sitting in a pipe and the diameter of the socket was too thick. This meant that we had to wait until Tuesday to go back to the workshop to get it fixed, darn! At night we invited Tony and Deb to a Mexican restaurant to talk about Mexico and to say thank you for all the help. Both of them are accomplished riders and there is a good chance that they will be joining us for our travel through Mexico in October. That would be fun and would have the added bonus to make our first crossing into Spanish speaking country less daunting. By the end of the evening Tony presented us with two side stand plates he’d fashinioned – right out of his ‘Tony Westlakes Motorcycle Products ‘ selection. What a great idea to remeber them by! Thank you so much!

So the next day we started to pack. Man we had accumulated soo much more stuff! We got rid of unnecessary items by throwing stuff out and send some home. Pack again, try to fit it onto the bike, repack, try to fit it again…… Did somebody hear some swearing? It’s amazing how much you accumulate when you are in a hotel room. Anyway, we did send a small parcel with some jumpers, Sigrid old helmet and a couple of other things, booked the accommodation for tomorrow, cleaned the bikes…  Did I mention we tried to fit our gear onto the bikes? So I guess we are ready. Tomorrow morning we are going to the workshop to get the mirrors fixed and then driving off. Canada we are coming!  😀

Date: 31/07
City: Modesto, California
Miles ridden: 5
Cumulative miles: 9424

In anticipation of Friday (where we’re hoping for an all clear from the doctor), we asked Tony if he could have a test ride with my fixed bike. Chris did a marvelous job of restoring the bike and fitting all the bits and pieces onto the handle bar, fitting the new pannier and the new windscreen.

Tony took off and was away for quite a bit.

When he came back he said everything looked ok, except the front tyre and the right mirror. The mirror just started to flip around as soon the bike got onto the highway which Chris and I didn’t noticed when the bike was stationary. Tony also noticed that, while riding, when  looking at the front tyre it wobbled both to the side and in height. We ask Chris to check it out and if the rim is ok to put a new front tyre on. Chris just nodded and said it should be ok in 2 days. Hopefully the doc gives us the ok! 😀

The next day we did a bit of sightseeing in Modesto. It was a beautiful day, we can’t really complain about the weather here. It is always around 95F and no clouds in the sky, nice and cool in the morning, getting hot during the afternoon. Somebody mentioned that it would be nice to see the McHenry mansion and the museum, so we hopped onto Sigrids bike and drove to downtown Modesto. We had a look at the arch, which is there since the early 1900s and welcomes the visitors to Modesto. We also found a cinema that had the appearance of the late 50’s

Later we went to the museum .It explained a lot of the Valley history, the water schema and the gold rush, quite interesting. They had a wagon cart as an exhibit as well , which looked like it was out of a western movie. One retired teacher, now working as a guide in the museum, told us that a fire had damaged the McHenry Mansion and it was currently being rebuild. So we had a look and got a private guided tour, unfortunately only of the ground floor, since the 2^nd floor was still a work in progress. After the tour we went back to the hotel, since it was afternoon and the swimming pool started to call J

Brice and the two diddles enjoyed themselves climbing on an iron horse in front of the McHenry Mansion.

I guess it was originally used to tether the horses?

The next day we went to the last physio session. Jolene was quite positive about getting the all clear from the doctor, I got excited. After sharing some knowledge with Sigrid on how to torture me, and some really good advice about what to do in the next couple of weeks, we departed. I was excited, tomorrow is the big day. If the doctor gives me the ok then we are going to the Horizon Unlimited meeting in Canada and meet with Val and Wombat again. It not, well, then we have to stay here for a couple of more weeks and miss the meeting.  Time will tell 🙂

Date: 24/07
City Modesto, California
Miles ridden: 135
Cumulative miles: 9371

It was time to leave Monterey and to go back to Modesto for my next physio session. The bike had a couple of more bags attached since we only had one bike and accumulated more stuff during our stay. Wombat and Val managed to reduce their luggage over the time, we only seem to be able to increase it 🙂

The way back was nice, particularly after we told the GPS to avoid highways. At one stage, it took us over a pass on a curvy road with a less than average surface and only so wide that 2 cars could just pass each other. We were hoping that the oncoming cars stuck to their lane when they came around the next corner. Did I mention that I’m a terrible pillion passenger?!? ….

After we survived the pass, we passed the Santa Luis Reservoir; we stopped there for a short while and had a look at the exhibition. We learned a bit about the California water schema. This allowed for most of the agriculture in California. The reservoir is also used for recreational purposes; the right picture shows some people at the beach – your screen is clean, the small dots on the picture are umbrellas.

We arrived in Modesto safely and arriving at the hotel was like Christmas. We got plenty of boxes with all the stuff that we had ordered before we left, none of the orders had been sent back, the staff in the Ramada Inn are just great.

The parcels contained both our helmets, my new motorcycle jacket, a replacement helmet camera and two safe pack nets. We tried all the new toys; Sigrid was happy particular with the build in sun visor. She was asking me to pose with all the gear on. What a great idea! Of course,  it /was/ 100F outside. But I did, and after a while it got really hot on my feet, so I started to jump around.

I actually quite like the heat. In Modesto we had around 100F, which is 22F more than in Monterey. We noticed the change as soon we passed the mountain range. At this temperature we were looking forward to getting into the pool. With all the scars healed, I jumped into the pool. It felt great! It looks like the hand has improved heaps over the last couple of days, more movement and less swollen, only the up/down wrist movement is still restricted.

Date: 25/07
City: Modesto, California
Miles ridden: 10
Cumulative miles: 9381

This morning we went to the physio, and I got measured. Looks like my strength in the left hand is half way there, flexibility of the wrist is not there yet, the wrist is still just as swollen as it was the first time at the physio. Bummer! But the fingers and the back of the hand are nearly back to normal. I hope we get the swelling down in the next week. We also got Sigrids credit card back from Target. Did I mentioned that Sigrid noticed yesterday that she lost her card? *sigh* Enough said…… We needed new brackets to fit the communication equipment to our new helmet, which ordered a while ago and stored with my bike in the workshop. So we went back to pick them up. Chris – the mechanic – was just working on my bike, it was nearly finished. I was happy that the bracket for the side panniers had arrived, so he could replace everything and nothing had to be mailed later on. I was over the moon -but didn’t take any pictures … :/

Date: 26/07
City: Modesto, California
Miles ridden: 9
Cumulative miles: 9390

The next day I fitted the bracket for the communication equipment to the helmet. To do that you have to pull the helmet apart, which is not a problem. Putting is back together, however, is is :D.
Judy and Lou, friends of Sue and Bobs (the couple who invited us to stay with them for a couple of days) invited us for dinner. We had a lovely evening with great food and great conversation. We left quite late at night and we realised that we didn’t take any pictures again.

Date: 27/07 – 30/07
City: Modesto, California
Miles ridden: 29
Cumulative miles: 9419

Next day we went back to the physio, this time I remembered to take pictures. So there is Jolene and Lori, they don’t look tough, but they know where it hurts :D.

There was a new toy for me to use, a ‘dare you’ machine. I dare you to put your arm into this machine. It is a big squarish looking machine with sleeves hanging out. So I put the arm in, Lori closed the sleeve around my arm -was that to prevent the blood from spilling out too far when the arm comes off?! I just hoped that the machine wasn’t related to the fancy food disposer with the swirling blades. In the end it was much more pleasant than expected; the machine made warm beach sand swirl around the hand. During the next hour I went to the usual routines, which included pretending to pull a clutch and polishing the office interior. Lori promised, when I pass the test, I’m allowed to do the windows next time J

And I played with the ball. To get the swelling down, I tried that at every possible place, even in front of Target J

On our way back, we passed by the George Lucas plaza with a sculpture showing a scene out of George Lucas first movie, American Graffiti. George Lucas is from Modesto and the movie plays in Modesto as well.

By the time we left, the weather started to get warm again (around 100F), so we decided to get back to the motel and have our pool/hot tub session 🙂

A couple of days later we went back to Judy just to take some pictures. But before we started, I had to get my left motorcycle glove on, without a splint (previously I used Dirks glove, which was much thinner). It took a bit of effort but it worked in the end.

When we arrived at Judy’s and Lou’s house, we decided to take the picture first, otherwise we’ll forget again. It ended up that we started chatting again and Sigrid had a look at some computer issue. So we ended up having dinner together at a Mexican restaurant where Vally – their daughter – with her family joined us. It was once more a really enjoyable evening.

Date: 19/07 – 23/07
City: Monterey, California
Miles ridden: 107
Cumulative miles: 9236

We tried to book accommodation in Monterey, all the prices were ok except for Saturday and Sunday, where prices nearly doubled. After a while we found something reasonable that averages out over the weekend. Then we took off to the mystery spot, a place of optically illusions. It is a house on a hillside that apparently slid down the hill and stopped in the middle.

Sigrid watched ‘The Matrix’ too often J

Being in the mystical spot made us feel a bit dizzy, but it was fun. After a short break we started direction to Monterey, well technical speaking to ‘Seaside’. We took our time and after settling in the motel we went to dinner to a sea food restaurant with nice meals.

After dinner we were ready for a walk to the beach. We passed some nice lakes on the way. It was a slightly longer way than expected, so we missed the sunset (by that much). Regardless, sun or not, Sigrid had to put her feet into the cold ocean.

The next day we visited the Monterey Aquarium, lots of people were raving about it, so we thought we have a look. First thing first we noticed was the expensive parking fees around the aquarium, so we drove around and ….. got lost. We ended up in a dead end at the wharf, and there where motorcycle parks for free! And to make it even better, a free shuttle bus was going from the Fishermen’s wharf to the aquarium and back. So we hopped onto the shuttle bus, which looked almost like the cable cars in San Francisco.

We learned that Monterey had long been famous for the abandoned fishery in Monterey Bay, which stopped around 1950 due to overfishing. Anyway, we arrived at the aquarium and the first exhibit pool we saw was the kelp forest pool, and were there just in time to see an albatross being fed. It was the first time that I saw a living albatross. The albatross can fly for days without landing, but starting and landing is not its forte and it looks a bit clumsy.

This one here lives in the aquarium because it cannot fly anymore. After feeding was finished we had a closer look at the kelp forest pool, the pool was 3 floors high. It featured plenty of different types of fish, including a large schools of sardines which reflected the sunlight hitting the pool. The picture doesn’t do it justice.

Then we went to the jellyfish section, to be honest, I don’t like jellyfish very much, but the expo was just stunning and much more enjoyable then I thought. There were all kinds of different jellyfish in different tanks and they looked stunning

In biggest tank it looked even more impressive

And then there was the sea horse display with the weedy sea dragon

and leafy sea dragon

There was much more to see and to do, the pictures above were our highlights. We left the aquarium around 6 PM and went for a sunset on the beach nearby. During the sunset I got an idea, I might strengthen my left hand if I do some exercises, hmmm, the only thing around was a glass of red wine, well….. I moved the glass with red wine up and down. The sunset was nice; it looked like an atomic mushroom cloud (nothing to do with the red wine).

The next day started with a cold cloudy morning. There was a sort of mist in the air and it felt a bit like rain. So we decided to start a bit later and check the Wharf out. We parked the bike on the bike only park again. First thing that we saw was the customs house that was the place where the American flag got raised when California was claimed by the Americans (it belonged to Mexico before).

The wharf was an accumulation of art, gift shops and restaurants. One of the major foods was the clam chowder and each restaurant gave a free sample. We tried them all to make up our mind, but when we arrived at the end of the board walk, we weren’t hungry any more. At one place we found plenty of seals and brown pelicans, when we got closer we realised why there were there, it was the place where the fishing cruisers cleaned their fish. I like the picture with the sea lion in front, not sure why he reminds me on myself J

It was still early in the day so we decided to hop onto the free shuttle bus and go to the Cannery Row. This area was used before the sardine industry collapsed for putting the sardines into tins. All the empty manufacturing buildings have been converted into shops, hotels or restaurants.

During our stroll we found the ‘Mirror Maze’ so we had a look and got lost a couple of times.

We had a look around the water front, where, to our surprise, we found the ‘Bubba Gump Shrimp Co’ (from of Forest Gump!).

On the way through the shops, I got into an argument with a blue fury guy J, I left him hanging…

By now we are used to it that we can buy Australian wine in a 1.5L bottle cheaper in the US then we can buy 0.7L of the same brand a in Australia, but look at the advertisement we found in one of the shops (keep in mind it was around 30 degrees).

The only thing that I haven’t seen here is a vegemite add J

Well that was a nice day; let’s see how the whale watching goes tomorrow!

The next day we got up early and went back to the wharf where the whale watching tours start from. Due to some comments made about whale watching on the internet, we took some sea sick tablets one hour before and brought warm clothes including our long johns

The sea was relatively calm before the break water. As soon we were on open sea, the boat started to roll quite a bit but luckily the tablets were working. Even though that this was not a fishing trip, lots of people did burley the fishJ. We saw a couple of whales blowing and diving, but none of them was breaching. This time we took more videos then pictures since the photo camera has only a 5 times zoom (Yep, there are whales in the pictures below, can you find them? J

After we were back on land, we had some brunch – we figured it might be better to have something to eat AFTER the whale watching. The sun started to come out, so we decided to ride to the Carmel Beach City Park, which is not too far from Monterey. On the way to Carmel it became cloudy again, but the temperature was still warm enough for a stroll and a powernap on the beach.

It was a nice day, so went home to pack our gear and get ready to get back to Modesto the next day.

Date: 18/07
City: Santa Cruz, California
Miles ridden: 125
Cumulative miles: 9129

We got up early, said good bye to Sue and Bob and hopped onto the bike and rode to my physio session.

After the physio session, we went back to the gym to pick up our thermos bottle which we forgot a day before. I had a brief look at the Santa Cruz temperature and noticed that it went down to 50F (10C) overnight, so we decided to take our heated vests with us. We drove back to the Ramada and picked up our Gerbin jackets. Then we were off – two up this time. Sigrid was happy that everything went well with me on the back and our repacked luggage. After we arrived in Santa Cruz, we put our stuff into our room and went to the beach walk.

Very impressive, plenty of marry go rounds and plenty of people, doesn’t anybody need to go work tomorrow? It’s a Thursday!?

We sat down on the beach, and used our bike cover as a blanket and later on as a mini tent. After the sunset the movie started, and the movie of the day was Grease.

It was nice to see a movie again after 30 years. When the movie was finished we had a brief look at the jetty. Most of the shops and restaurants were closed at this time, but we found a couple of sea lions making noise and lounging at a pontoon.

That was enough excitement for the day, tomorrow we have a look at the mystery spot and continue to Monterey, apparently a town with nice beaches and an impressive aquarium. We will check it out and report back! 😀